Miracles in Audio, by luck, by good choices,by design or by tweaking...


I owned a low cost headphone for many years, the Fostex TH7B, first version( a new one close version exist Fostex TH7BK), semi-open headphone...I was never completely satisfied by any headphones I ever owned: Hifiman 400, Stax basic lamda, Stax 5 gold,Akg 340,Akg 701, beyerdynamic 990, and T150... Because in each of them with all their qualities I never listen to at the same times, a confortable headphone with natural timbre and voicing, with a good imaging and a realistic soundstage(not too close to my ears)...


For the last days I tweaked this Fostex, to damp his internal resonance I used sorbothane, I put some shungite stones at the exterior part of the cups and I use some Herkimer diamond in the interior pads( 3 at 120 degree) … Now this low cost headphones crush all my others if I sum all his qualities... For example his mids and voicing cannot beat the AKG 340 but among all my other headphones it is the best that is near that mids and it is more confortable, and with longer cable than the 340...His imaging is better and more realistic than the 340 etc etc...It is the same if I compare with the others...


His most important qualities is natural timbre and clear imaging,very precise pinned point accuracy and natural, so clear it crush for that ALL the others to dust...In the French audio circle the reviews were more than very positive few years ago...Diapason d’or and choc Classica...I am not the only one impressed buy the ratio quality/price... But remember that thesae reviewers dont tweak their headphone...The difference between before and after the tweaks are staggering...


Yes Miracles happens in Audio: cost is under 100 American dollars... Few years ago they cost me 50 bucks new... I never dreamed that I will go back to headphones...


I will enjoy your miracles stories of any kind ….My best to all...
128x128mahgister
I think that you are right, and I completely forget this "choice" made by my baby... :) 

And you are right also on the remark about heaven and hell...It is all our choices, conscious at one level or not... We owns the heaven and the hell, we must make our choices, at this level, or if not at this one, at another level...


You are right and I wish you the best...Merry Christmas...This is the day...
I winned the jackpot with this idea of the "golden" plates, more than with all my other efficient tweaks, this shungite plate + copper tape+ herkimer diamond or other stones, act like an absolute enhancer of the speakers and decrease the noise level if placed near the breakers central panels... At other places they play well their function also but not so strongly that at those 2 places... They cost peanuts to makes and by the way I dont sell them or anything...


But the interest manifested here for this experiment seems to be near zero and almost 2... :) Because they are no report here.... Perhaps it will takes more times to had some...Never mind these ideas are yours to experiment with... Or go on, and spend tons of money, I would have done the same if I had been able to, instead of painfully thinking my way to heaven ... :)

Happy New Year from my heart to you all....
Ok a small tip for finishing this year....

A one inch asymmetrical positioning of your speakers, or some few angular degree off of one another, can spell doom...

Try it and the impact of this rectification is akin to be in the same order that some upgrade of any component, and perhaps more...


Happy New Year!
Tip on speaker location. The only 100% way to achieve absolute speaker locations on a given room is using a speaker set-up track on the XLO Test CD or similar Test CD that has the out-of-phase track. All other methods such as “move a little/listen a little” or lasers cannot find the absolute ideal locations. It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack. You can never know when you have found the absolute best locations. 

As one progresses in his system tweaks and room treatments the ideal speaker locations can often change so the XLO speaker set-up track should be used every once in a while to reestablish the correct locations. All other methods are like trying to solve x simultaneous equations in x + n unknowns.

I will use the Foobar 2000 Mathaudio room EQ in the next months...

For now miraculously my ears "inconsciously" solve this x simultaneous equations in x+n unknowns.. :)


And I said "miraculously" because a very little displacement gives a big reward...


Geoffkait I wish you the best from my heart for the year to come and thank you for your dedication to answer questions from me or from others....